IceHogs News

Jonathan Toews scored his first NHL hat trick, led the Hawks in erasing a two-goal deficit twice, and salvaged a game against the defending Eastern Conference champions Friday night.

But after the Blackhawks’ 5-4 overtime loss to Pittsburgh, Toews didn’t care what he scored; he only knew that it wasn’t enough.

“It’s nice to score, but we wanted this one pretty badly and it’s disappointing not to come out of it with two points,” he said. “In the last couple of games that we lost, we weren’t happy with the game that we played. But coming into this homestand, we wanted to get off to a good start. It’s a tough one, considering we came back and had some momentum late in the game.”

For much of the game, the Hawks even earning one point seemed like a stretch; they rebounded twice when down by two goals, and even managed to turn the momentum when another of Toews’ goals was reversed; fans were so sure that it was a goal that they began to throw their hats and construction helmets – the game night giveaway – on the ice.

“I wasn’t too sure when the puck went in until I saw the replay on the scoreboard,” Toews said. “I was pretty confident they were going keep the call, especially because the same thing happened against us in Minnesota and it was called a goal. It was frustrating that it didn’t count, and then Pittsburgh came back and scored two goals just like that.”

But eventually, Toews connected on his third power play tally and got bombarded with a second round of helmets.

“I didn’t know what was going on during that goal that got disallowed,” he said. “I got smoked in the head as I was going by the bench. At least the second time the hats didn’t go to waste.”

“It was a good night to give hats away,” said head coach Joel Quenneville. “Jonny had a special night tonight, and he did a lot of good things. He’s gotten better every game. We love that he’s taking charge in addition to increasing his production. All year long, we’ve wanted to improve as a team and he’s been doing it in his own game.”

As for the result, Quenneville says he saw a good effort from his team against the Penguins, who are known as a strong offensive team. But the effort will only take the Hawks so far if they don’t win the games ahead.

“I didn’t mind most of the things we did all night; we did a lot of good things, but playing catch-up usually ends in a poor result,” he said. “We’re talking about how we played, but we should be talking about wins and losses.”